I have always loved travelling; I think the bug bit me even before I was born. My grandmother ran away to sea at 15 and then she met my grandfather Anton and they both ran away with the circus. Here are the art blog about that 20. Antonis Tivoli & 21. Life in a Circus Tent. My father joined the merchant navy as a young man whilst my mother did a stint working in England as a young woman. Born and bred in Sweden we did our fair share of travelling before we immigrated to Australia too. I have then crossed the globe many times both for work as a model and artist and on family holidays.

Her Royal Majesty in a jam!

THE ART OF PERSUASION

However this time when we had our European holiday all mapped out I did not want to go – and neither did hubby, go figure! Our kids actually talked us into it, you know the old chestnuts “you only live once, and you will forever regret the things you didn’t do” etc. And yes they were so right, who would have thought? LOL. The kids took us to the airport; I think mainly to make sure we were on that 30 hour flight to Sweden!

30 hours I hear you say, yep when you use the frequent flyer points that’s what you get, lots of take offs and landings all around the world. Luckily we soon got in the groove, I had yummy Indian vego meals booked and we saw some great movies and docos and just chilled. We even thought of joining the Mile High club, lol, but decided the space was too cramped, ha ha.

UNION ART

When we got to London we wisely decided to forgo the waiting at the airport option and got a bus to Windsor Castle instead. These painting details are from my artwork London 2012 that is also available as a Giclee print with Union Art .

Naive art in London

LONDON2012 ARTWORK & MEETING THE QUEEN

Windsor was lots of fun, I had not been there before and we saw the changing of the guard which was quite spectacular and then poked about up and down the alley ways. The queue to the actual castle was a bit long for our liking and the queen wasn’t even in residence that day so we gave that a miss. I mean we would have made the effort if she was making us tea and cucumber sandwiches! (If I had checked the painting above I would have known she was really still stuck in a traffic jam).

Then back to the airport with all the rigmarole of check ins and security and the like. I must look really suss as I always gets pulled aside for the extra screenings, not sure if they think I am a terrorist or a drug smuggler or whether they just want to fiddle with my stuff, lol.

ART & THE OLYMPICS

Also if you would like to read about how the London2012 painting came about have a look at this art blog147 Art and the Olympics.

We finally arrived in Sweden a little worse for wear (a spruce up in the airport loos just don’t cut it does it?) luckily we were met by my wonderful cousin Leif and his family who overlooks this fact. Leif is one of those truly beautiful souls, gentle and kind and caring man in a 6 feet 4 body, a gentle giant.

A real sweetheart!

So here is a quote I like about nice guys by an unknown author.

“It is not true that nice guys finish last. Nice guys are winners before the game even starts.”

Till next time happy painting and sculpting to all of you or just enjoy the view!